If Only
by Rikiki
Summary: Death, much mourned, and revenge.


AN: Aiya, don't kill me! IMHO, this fic's dark but good. I took some liberties, such as assuming that the bond between Lina & Gourry was like the lifebonds in Mercedes Lackey's Velgarth books. Please R&R, y'all.  
  
Key: /thoughts/  
  
~flashback~  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Slayers. If I did this wouldn't be /ifiction, would it?  
  
"If Only..."  
  
The sun was bright that fall day, with the leaves falling from the trees and the autumn air crisp, as it so often was. Children played on the streets of Sailoon, and all seemed right in the world. Darkness reigned, though, in a small inn room near the outskirts of the city.  
  
~"I don't care what you think! It's my life, my decision, and I'm going!!!" Lina said, or maybe screamed, livid with rage. She stormed out of their room, leaving Gourry standing there. He just looked after her silently for a moment, then came to his senses and rushed out the door. The flame-haired sorceress had already left, though.~  
  
/If only I'd gone after her more quickly, stopped her somehow./ Gourry sat now, thinking morosely. /Oh, hell, if only I'd tried to explain better, maybe found someone better at explaining to help. Zel, maybe, or even Amelia. But I didn't, and now... and now.../ Tears ran down the swordsman's face. He stood up, but only sat back down again.  
  
~Lina had left the city, confident that this would be just another quest. Gourry's refusal to go hadn't fazed her much, she figured he was just showing his normal lack of intelligence. She hadn't been able to track down Zel or Amelia, but she didn't really mind being alone that much. She walked down the path, whistling happily.  
  
In a cave, the front cave of the complex the sorceress supreme was headed for, a figure watched her walk, using a pool of water to scry. Violet eyes closed, the grin ever there, and waited to complete his mistress's latest assignment for him.  
  
Back at the inn, Gourry paced nervously, hoping his fears were baseless, that his love would come back unharmed.~  
  
/Damn Xelloss. Damn him and that bitch he works for./ Gourry buried his face in the pillow, still suffering from borrowed memories.  
  
~Lina walked into the cave, a fireball at the ready. The spell was forgotten at the familiar sight of the Trickster Priest, but was that a sword in his hand? She looked from it to him, surprised. "Xelloss! What are you doing here?"  
  
"Orders, Lina-chan." Xelloss opened his eyes, looking straight at her. She stared at him, her own red eyes wide in shock. Before she could move, before she could react, he had teleported, moved close enough to her to swing the sword. Its blade was sharp, well honed; Lina died instantly as her head fell off. Xelloss looked down at the body, the red of her blood on his clothes, and closed his eyes. "It's a pity I was ordered to merely kill you, Lina-chan. You would have made a fine Mazoku." He disappeared, and the cave was empty, save for the corpse of the famous Lina Inverse.  
  
At the inn, Gourry was struck stiff. Along the bond that linked him and Lina came a cache of memories, thoughts, wishes. Not his, though. They had come from Lina, and now he knew that his fear had been right, that Lina was dead, by Xelloss's hand. He collapsed onto the floor, alone and sobbing.~  
  
Gourry sighed as the tears stopped coming, all of them gone. He looked over the note he had written; he knew his friends would be coming soon, as soon as they found out about Lina. That didn't give him much time. He grabbed the knife that he'd stolen from the inn's kitchen and got up, checking to make sure the door was locked. It was, of course, and he smiled. It was a grim smile, a sad smile, and rather chilling. He gripped the knife and slashed his wrist, along the vein. Quickly, before he completely lost his strength, he switched the hand the knife was in and made an identical cut on his other wrist. The pain was enough to dull out the pain of his loss, and his last thought as he lay there dying, somebody pounding on the door, was, /If only you'd listened, Lina-chan.../  
  
Zelgadiss finally managed to break the door down, but he was too late. Lying there on the floor, blood tarnishing his golden hair, was Gourry, as dead as the woman he had loved. The chimera moved over to the bedside table, picking up the note the swordsman had written it. It told how Lina had died, and why Gourry had killed himself. Zel looked back at Amelia, standing in the door, "It was Xelloss..."  
  
"Xelloss killed Gourry-chan? And Lina?" Amelia was puzzled, a bit, but mostly sad, and angry.  
  
"No... he killed Lina. Gourry.. he loved Lina.. tried to stop her from going... Somehow, he knew instantly that she was dead, and who killed her... He wrote it all down and killed himself." Zelgadiss's voice was hoarse with grief, he wasn't letting himself cry at his friends' deaths, not yet. Not till that goddamned Mazoku was dead. "The letter... In it, he says he wants me to have the Hikari no Ken... he wants me to kill Xelloss.." He took the sword off the bed, where Gourry had left it.  
  
The funeral was held a week later, at the Sailoon royal cemetary. Prince Philionel had declared that the couple should be buried there, both because they were such good friends of Amelia and because they had helped the kingdom so many times. All of their friends were there- Silphiel and Amelia crying together, Martina and Zangulus dry eyed but sad, Zelgadiss, of course, all his tears gone now, and everyone else they'd ever traveled with. Even Naga showed up, though nobody remembered when Lina had traveled with her.   
  
It was after the service when Xelloss appeared. Everyone had left by then, everyone except Zelgadiss. Xelloss paid no attention to him, though, merely looked at the newest graves. Zelgadiss drew the Hikari no Ken, igniting it as his friend had done so often, and walked up behind Xelloss; however, he waited to see what the Mazoku would do. Xelloss, still looking at the graves, whispered, "If only I could have ignored Beastmaster-sama's orders... I'm sorry, Lina-chan..." He then turned and met the sword's blade as Zelgadiss swung it across his chest, slicing the Trickster Priest in two. 


End file.
